


Twenty-Seven Years Later

by CookieDoughMe



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: 27 years later, A happy little moment in time, Multi, Post-Troubles, post-series(ish)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 14:53:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8849284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CookieDoughMe/pseuds/CookieDoughMe
Summary: This is not so much of a fix-it fic as a fixed-it fic in that it skips past the part where the Troubles are finally cured for good, and fast-forwards almost three decades, to see a glimpse of a different kind of (happy) ending.





	

The Third Chance Bistro sat perched where the land met the sea, surrounded by decking for its customers below and a balcony for the apartment above. It had been there for nearly three decades, though the effects of the ocean weather made it look like it might have been forever.

Tourists asked sometimes about the name, and the explanation they got depended on who they asked and what kind of mood they were in at the time. Most of the responses had something to do with it having been rebuilt 25 years ago (after the “storm” that had devastated much of Haven) and with another name it had had some time before that.

Some of its long-standing regular customers still thought of it as the Old Gull. But that wasn't a part of the story that got told to tourists very often.

On the balcony upstairs, two men sat together in companionable silence, looking out to sea and watching the sunset as they had many times before. The sounds of the bar below washed over them, so familiar now as to be almost unheard. The lines on their faces and the grey hairs (in the stubble that covered one man's chin and in the goatee that graced the edges of the other’s), showed the number of years they had behind them. And the comfortable way they sat together, doing nothing much in particular, showed how many of those years they had spent in each other’s company.

One of them reached for the bottle on the table between them, pouring a glass for his companion and them for himself, and they toasted before they drank, clinking their glasses together first at the top, then at the bottom.

After a moment, one of them spoke. His voice had a somewhat careful sound to it, as though he didn't always use it that often. “Sometimes I forget how old we really are,” he said.

Duke looked at him doubtfully.

Nathan shrugged. “It's just a number,” he pointed out.

Duke considered this. “Not necessarily,” he replied.

Nathan nodded a silent acknowledgement.

They were quiet again as they appreciated the view, and the drinks, and the company.

“It would have been this year,” said Nathan after a little while.

Duke didn't have to ask what he meant. He nodded in response.

“It would have been a year of horrors,” Nathan began. “Of disasters and death, strange illnesses and unsolvable crimes.”

“It would have been the year you lost your sense of touch, and I was asked to kill again,” Duke continued. “It would have been a year we dreaded. And yet ...”

Nathan finished the sentence for him, “And yet somehow that would never have been the right word, because it would also have been the year we saw her again.”

Duke nodded. “Even if she were someone different. Even if she had no idea who we were.”

“I'm not sure which would have been harder to deal with,” admitted Nathan. “The Troubles coming back, or seeing her look at me like a stranger.”

Duke nodded in understanding and agreement. After a moment he added, “Sometimes I wonder how Vince and Dave did it.”

“Kinda explains a lot,” Nathan suggested, drawing a sharp laugh out of Duke.

They were still smiling a moment later when the door behind them opened. “There you are,” said Nathan without looking round.

“Much longer and you'd have missed the sunset,” Duke added as he reached for the bottle again to pour a third glass.

As Audrey Parker took the seat between them, she laid a hand on Nathan’s knee and turned to Duke, “Well,” she said, returning his smile, “With you two out here, I knew there would be a nice view waiting for me in any case.”

**Author's Note:**

> Because you just know, that faced with the possibility of Audrey going into the barn to pause the Troubles for 27 years, it wouldn't have taken either Nathan or Duke very long to work out how old they would be when it was due to send her back again.


End file.
